VIU Colloquium Series kicks off with a deep dive into the action thriller Atomic Blonde

Arts and Humanities lectures at the VIU Nanaimo campus are free and open to everyone to attend.

Vancouver Island University’s (VIU’s) Arts and Humanities Colloquium Series returns this fall with three fascinating lectures.

The lectures delve into the action thriller Atomic Blonde, housing availability and affordability in Louisville, and the use of songs in musical theatre. All lectures are free to attend and are held from 10 to 11:30 am in VIU’s Malaspina Theatre (Building 310) at the Nanaimo campus. The Colloquium Series lectures will also be livestreamed on the VIU Media Studies’ YouTube channel.

“We have an amazing and diverse line-up of speakers presenting in the Colloquium Series this year,” said Dr. Theo Finigan, Chair of the Colloquium Series Committee and a VIU English Professor. 

The series kicks off on Friday, September 23 with Generic Transposition in Atomic Blonde, presented by Finigan. The lecture examines the film Atomic Blonde, an adaptation of the graphic novel The Coldest City. Both have a similar plot, centering around a search for the real identities of spies working in West and East Berlin at the close of the Cold War. 

“The film fundamentally alters the underlying generic identity of the graphic novel, shifting us from a glacial espionage narrative to something quite different: what the genre comics scholar Liam Burke refers to as the ‘comic book movie,’” said Finigan.

On October 21, Katarina Litva, a VIU Interior Design Professor, presents Spatial Impacts of Policy on Poverty and Affordable Housing Over Time. 

“Housing affordability for low- and middle-income families has been an issue of concern for many years, with an established link between health and secure housing,” said Litva. “Many factors contribute to housing availability and affordability, including current and past policies and practices of all three levels of government.”

Litva will discuss policies and practices and how they impacted nine urban neighbourhoods and their residents in Louisville, Kentucky. She will visually map the demographic shifts in race, education and income over nine decades, from 1940 to 2017.

On November 25, Eliza Gardiner, a VIU Theatre Professor, presents Story Through Song. Gardiner will discuss musical theatre and how it uses songs to develop character, progress plot and provoke thought.

In this singer-songwriter set, Gardiner will share tunes from her original musical narrative Concessions of a Wannabe Rock Star and discuss the poetic structure, use of metaphor and inspiration behind the ballads.

To learn more about the upcoming lectures, visit the Arts and Humanities Colloquium Series website.

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Media Contact:

Rachel Stern, Communications Officer, Vancouver Island University

C: 250.618.0373 l E: Rachel.Stern@viu.ca | T: @VIUNews